Help me please with my first gaming build

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hakatech

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Aug 21, 2011
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Hi everyone,

a few days ago I decided I wanted to build myself a mighty gaming PC, I am only a student so my budget is pretty tight and is about £460-£560 (and if your wondering why 60 it is because I have a £60 gift voucher to amazon so really my budget is £400-£500 and also the £60 voucher). I have managed to stay within that limit but need your help guys to see if I can improve anything with it. My build is as follows:

Intel Core i5 2500K - 161.13 - 60 voucher= £101.13
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/dp/B004FA8NX2?tag=invihand-21

Biostar TP67B+ B3 Revision P67 Socket 1155 5.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £86.02
http://www.ebuyer.com/255159-biostar-tp67b-b3-revision-p67-socket-1155-5-1-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-tp67b-

G-Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RipjawsX Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V - £40.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/264750-g-skill-8gb-2x4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjawsx-memory-kit-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9d-8gbxl

Seagate 1TB 3.5" Barracuda SATA-III 6Gb/s Hard Drive - 7200RPM 32MB Cache - £45.11
http://www.ebuyer.com/252858-seagate-1tb-3-5-barracuda-sata-iii-6gb-s-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as

LiteOn iHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black with Nero Essentials - £13.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/176026-liteon-ihas124-19-24x-dvd-rw-dl-ram-sata-optical-drive-oem-ihas124-19

XFX HD 6870 900MHz 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI Dual DisplayPort HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card - £139
http://www.ebuyer.com/279585-xfx-hd-6870-900mhz-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-dual-displayport-hdmi-pci-e-hd-687a-zhfc

With the power supply I am not sure, how about this one:
Corsair Memory 600W Builder Series CX V2 ATX PSU - £49.99
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-memory-600w-builder-series-cx-v2-atx-psu-7JSQ.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product+search&utm_content=Q200

and the case will be about £25, haven't found a good one yet, any suggestions

total- £501.21


I will be OCing the 2500k to the maximum stable speed i can get (or trying to anyway as i have never done any overclocking before). I may decide to do some crossfire later on (how much more would this improve performance, is it worth buying the second graphics card?) when I save up a bit more money and also possibly get a small SSD hard drive and maybe a blu-ray drive.




So what do you guys think, any changes, or improvements you might have would be highly appreciated 😀 .
 
I really do not know about systems in that range so I cant help you there. But by the looks of it it looks alright. Dont forget you need an operating system, unless you have one already.
Also, learn a bit more about overclocking before you try to overclock to max stable speed. You might mess up, and it could cost you a lot for your mistake.
 
After looking at your recommendations, which are great by the way, they both are over budget, and to be honest with you I need to stay under budget as basically I have £700, and however much is left over after building this pc, is going to be used for a netbook for uni. I had my eye on the toshiba NB550D but that is about £270, so if there is any way I can decrease the price of this build I would be truly grateful.
 
You could start off with 4GB of RAM, either 2x2GB or a single 4GB stick, which would allow an easy upgrade to 8GB when you have the money.
G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V £26
http://www.ebuyer.com/264749-g-skill-4gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ripjaws-memory-module-cl9-9-9-9-24-1-5v-f3-12800cl9s-4gbrl

Other smaller savings, which might add up:
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB £43
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804
SATA 6Gbps isn't a big deal for mechanical harddrives, as they barely saturate the original SATA spec.
Alternatively get a 500GB drive.

Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3-B3 £79
http://www.ebuyer.com/269125-gigabyte-ga-z68a-d3-b3-socket-1155-7-1-channel-audo-atx-motherboard-ga-z68a-d3-b3

Asrock Pro P67 Pro3 SE £76
http://www.ebuyer.com/267317-asrock-p67-pro3-se-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-p67-pro3-se
 
Thank you very much for those tips, I just did some more research on sata3/sata2 comparison and your right not going to get much improvement from a sata3, so will stick to sata2. As for the motherboard, would it make any difference if I chose the cheaper asrock that you mentioned, to the one I already had?
 
I was also wondering, most people that I saw having a similar build to mine used 8GB of ram, so i assumed any less ram may bottleneck the system. So would using 4gb now over 8gb really make a difference or is it just because most people are future proofing themselves.
 
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/ssd-vs-8gb.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1
Just three reviews which, mostly, don't show much if any significant increase in performance between 4 and 8GB.

I'm not really sure why so many people go for 8GB of RAM, some people definitely need it because the work/programs they use with their computers need as much RAM as possible. The other reason why people get 8GB nowadays is that it is really cheap these days.

I looked through their respective product pages and most of the differences that I could see between them favoured the Asrock. The only reasons not to buy the Asrock board that I could see is that it doesn't have any PCI slots, which is a dying slot type anyway. And the SATA ports aren't side mounted.

This is probably a better board than the Pro3 SE, don't know why I overlooked it previously.
Asrock P67 Pro £74
http://www.ebuyer.com/267321-asrock-p67-pro-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-p67-pro
 
It only has one pci-e slot so no support for crossfire, I think for me the pro3 SE would be better, just so I have that I have that option if the chance ever arises.
 


The Biostar range of boards is interesting, I recently did a private build on a biostar TZ68A+ and what it lacks in pretty it sure makes up in performance. I think it is like an old Shelby 500 GT, it may not look like a Bugatti Veyron, but it nevertheless puts out, the only way ASROCK and BIOSTAR can break the status quo is if people open up to them as a genuine competing product. Not fancy, but efficient.
 
Updates:

Asrock P67 PRO3 SE Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio ATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/267317-asrock-p67-pro3-se-socket-1155-8-channel-hd-audio-atx-motherboard-p67-pro3-se

Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Memory Kit CL9
http://www.ebuyer.com/262587-corsair-vengeance-4gb-2x2gb-ddr3-1600mhz-memory-kit-cl9-cmz4gx3m2a1600c9

WD 500GB 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s Caviar Black Hard Drive - 7200rpm 32MB Cache
http://www.ebuyer.com/246034-wd-500gb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-caviar-black-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-wd5002aalx

Sapphire 11179-09-20G HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11179-09-20G-6870-GDDR5-Graphics/dp/tech-data/B004R7MTPQ/ref=de_a_smtd

And I could not beat the temptation and I am also getting an SSD (even though I am trying to keep costs down)
OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G
http://www.ebuyer.com/225415-ocz-60gb-vertex-2e-ssd-oczssd2-2vtxe60g-oczssd2-2vtxe60g

So what do you guys think??
 
XFX 6870 New dual fan VS older XFX 6870 black edition with stock fan

I can get both of them for the same price so which is better. here are the links:

XFX HD 6870 Dual Fan
Scan.co.uk: XFX HD 6870 Dual Fan ATI - AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 1GB + Free Shogun 2* - HD-687A-ZDFC

XFX ATI Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition
XFX ATI Radeon HD 6870 Black Edition 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FREE Shogun 2 Game! - Aria PC
 
OCZ Vertex 60GB 2E VS. OCZ Solid 3 60GB
which is better?

I can both of them for same price, so which is better.

OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G
OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD - Cheap SSD | Ebuyer.com

OCZ Solid 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive
OCZ Solid 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-III Solid State Hard Drive - Aria PC
 
Thermaltake 575W Toughpower VS. 600W OCZ ModXStream
Both are pretty much the same price so which is better??

Thermaltake 575W Toughpower XT Modular PSU
Thermaltake 575W Toughpower XT Modular PSU | Ebuyer.com

600W OCZ ModXStream Pro Modular Silent SLI/Crossfire Ready ATX2.2 Power Supply
600W OCZ ModXStream Pro Modular Silent SLI/Crossfire Ready ATX2.2 Power Supply - Aria Technology
 
The Thermaltake PSU is definitely better; higher efficiency rating, TT has a 48A 12V rail, the OCZ has two 12V rails which total at 504W, TT has longer cables.

I think I would take the dual fan 6870.

The Solid 3 will be faster, in best case I think it will be pretty similar to the Vertex 3 & Agility 3 in performance, but the quality of the NAND might be lower.

 
I noticed that in a previous response you said you might crossfire later on , if that is the case then you might want to look at what ever money you have extra and get the highest power supply you can afford. Two video cards can suck up the extra wattage quickly and if you do get the second you don't want to have to upgrade your power supply at the same time .
 
no I finally decided to spend a bit more money as it would be more worth it in the long run, so im getting a 6950 frozr III (when they are back in stock) dnt think I will need to crossfire anytime soon for gaming as that gpu (especially when I overclock) will be able to handle anything i throw at it now. I also canceled getting an SSD for this GPU so i will also be getting 8GB ram and 1TB hard drive should cost me about £660 and hopefully very powerful.
 
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